Mixing Music and Business

John Griggs is a senior Business Administration major at Alcorn State University and his ear for music is his passion. Griggs was born and raised in Monroe, Louisiana before his family relocated to Meridian, Mississippi at the age of five. In 2011 he graduated from Meridian High School and decided to complete his studies at Alcorn.

With the help of a band scholarship, Griggs eagerly joined Alcorn’s Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite to play the snare drum on the drum line. The drums are not the only instrument that has given him a musical outlet. Griggs is also skilled at the bass guitar as well as piano, which he says he learned to play by ear.

“I’m always looking to push myself and I enjoy the atmosphere at Alcorn because I can come out on top of the pack with positive and competitive reinforcements.”

Having a knack for keeping himself busy, Griggs is a double major with a minor in Mass Communications. He wants to apply his business degree to several different outlets such as opening his own real estate business and restaurant franchise. He also hopes to earn enough money to be able to expand the activities for kids in his hometown of Meridian by revamping an old mall into a paintball and laser tag amusement park.

“I hope to have enough money by the age of thirty to be able to buy half of Meridian,” Griggs laughed.

He is also an active member of the Army National Guard and serves as a military police officer. Griggs reports to drill once a month and is responsible for doing work overseas. As a military police officer he does standard police work and has been a member of the National Guard for four years and hopes to be promoted to sergeant by the end of this year. He says his future is all based on the opportunities granted to him.

These are not the only avenues that he wants to take in life. Griggs wants to use his degree to open more doors to work behind the scenes in music as an Artist and Repertoire (A&R) representative or an event planner. His career has already kick started as Griggs is a disc jockey for a radio show on campus called, Thoughts of Perfection (TOP). The program features talented students on campus and gives them an opportunity to showcase their rap and spoken word skills. Griggs hits his audience with topics that will grab their attention and make them want to learn more. The show has already discussed different subjects such as, how are women treated in society as well as keeping up appearances due to social status and peers.

“I want to give our listeners topics that are real in our society today and give them something to stop and think about,” Griggs said. “I want to raise the audience’s total consciousness to get the show out to bring more listeners in.”

With the help of a team of students, Griggs wants to get his vision for TOP on the road. He has an idea to get his production to travel to different schools around the country for more exposure to states such as Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Thoughts of Perfection (TOP) airs every Monday night at 9:00 pm on WPRL 91.7 FM or WPRL.org.